Blast Rites #5: Houkago Grind Time / Archaganini – Split Review

I cannot tell you how many times I’ve been listening to Agathocles and thought, “Goddamn, this raw-as-shit rudimentary grinding mayhem is awesome, but I wish it had more neoclassical sweep-picking.” And then I’d have another beer and start firing off e-mails to Yngwie Malmsteen, asking him to please please please do a guest spot on an Archagathus track.

He’s never once written back – apparently, he’s kind of a pain in the ass – but thankfully, multi-band wunderkind Andrew Lee magically heard my prayers, and now we have Archaganini…

But we’re getting ahead of ourselves. FIRST, we have Houkago Grind Time, whom I’ve covered before. In the interim between this and their (his) Bakyunsified (Moe To The Gore) release back in 2020, I have not checked out one single second of anime, despite saying then that I was going to stream Giant Robo. But what I have done many times since then is listen to Houkago Grind Time, who have helped me in that endeavor by releasing three splits (including this one) and an EP.

Each of those is filled with anime-themed mincing grinding greatness, short bursts of raw riffing and blasting, goregurgle vocals and hints of Lee’s guitar shred capabilities. (Despite the mincecore leanings, Lee can’t hide his musical talent, and HGT’s riffs are a bit more technical than purely punky. But still, far more of that shredding comes later.) So if you’re on board for Houkago Grind Time’s awesome grinding times, here’s another four songs spanning approximately three and a half minutes (or just under). Each of the four is more of the same downtuned riffing with the occasional pinch-harmonic for flavor, all buoyed by blasting rhythms and topped with Lee’s pitch-shifted low-end growls. Three tracks fly by in killer mince-grind perfection before the chunky chug of “Miyajima Reiji Can’t Keep Getting Away With It” locks into a groove, albeit a short one, and then a minute later…

Archaganini, the undisputed gods of mincecore shred, the crossroads where early Earache and Shrapnel meet… Four songs of neoclassical guitar-laden grinding, Unholy Grave if Marty Friedman had joined them instead of Megadeth, blastbeats and arpeggios, Jan AG and Beethoven… The basic riffs buzz like bees atop the hammering drums, but those guitar solos carry the day, Jason Becker and Ludwig Van and Mussorsky as references (and inspirations and co-composers), and yeah, sure, it’s ridiculous, but you know what else it is? Awesome. So there…

It’s not every day you get a split release where the number of band members is equal to one-eighth the number of songs, and to half the number of bands. But if anyone can do it, Andrew Lee can do it, and he has. Maybe you’ve got a better way to spend 7 minutes, but I can’t think of any offhand. Get ripped, get shredded, get ground.